On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Tatar, Becky wrote:
> Gary, I don't know if my experience connects with what you are saying, but I
> see a lot of people where I work who have no clue about video, or any other
> av materials. The basic belief is that av is just like books, what can be
> so hard? We are starting to get some interest (negative) by our board
> members in the fact that we have so many direct orders. Why does
> processesing and cataloging take so long? Why don't you have a certain
> title? That last one, I hear all the time! I am finally going to start
> DVDs, but the impression I am getting from our assistant director, and I
> could be totally reading him wrong, is that I shouldn't worry about
> collection policy - just order anything in order to get a collection. Don't
> check reviews, evaluate titles, just order popular stuff. This flies in the
> face of all our other av collections - popular titles, yes, but also a wide
> range of other subjects. (I'll stop whining now.)
>
> Also, are media courses available at library science (or should I say
> Information science) schools? I don't remember any when I was studying for
> my degree at Dominican University in the late 1980s. I work with av because
> that's the department I was hired for when I first started as a
> paraprofessional.
>
> Another thing - how many people who work with video - or other media - know
> this group exists? or what it does? I only found out accidentally a few
> years ago - and we have had video since the early 80s. We used to have an
> AV SIG in our system - it closed down a long time ago.
>
> I don't know if all this adds to the discussion, or is down a different
> road.
>
> Becky Tatar
> Unit Head, Periodicals, Audiovisual
> Aurora Public Library
> 1 E. Benton Street
> Aurora, IL 60505
> PHONE: 630-264-4100
> FAX: 630-896-3209
> www.aurora.lib.il.us
> E-mail: bltata@aurora.lib.il.us
>